Beautiful Katamari for PS3 and Project HAMMER canceled? @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on June 14, 2007

News: The Prince's next rolling, rollicking adventure would become exclusive to the Xbox 360 if so.

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal is saying that Namco Bandai and Microsoft have reached an agreement to make Beautiful Katamari exclusive to the Xbox 360.

According to Croal, Namco Bandai was worried about the slow sales of the PS3. Couple this with Microsoft's desire for uniquely Japanese-developed titles and the deal was done. Here's what Croal's Level Up blog had to say about it:

But when a little birdie with good reason to know--and to gloat--informed us that the We Love Katamari sequel, Beautiful Katamari, would join the ranks of Xbox 360 exclusive titles, the pattern was impossible to deny. We've since confirmed that an exclusivity deal between Namco and Microsoft is very close to fruition, likely to be announced at the E3 Media and Business Summit in July. Namco is enjoying the warm embrace and ever-deepening ties with Microsoft, while Microsoft sees this as an opportunity to change the perception of Xbox 360 as the barracks for bald space marines and little else.

Meanwhile, IGN is saying that Nintendo has quietly canceled the Wii action game Project H.A.M.M.E.R. IGN further claimed the development team has been reassigned to work on a new set of casual games the Wii is quickly becoming known for. Said IGN:

Insiders close to development studio NST allege to IGN that the software company's Wii action title, tentatively titled Project H.A.M.M.E.R., has been terminated by publisher Nintendo. Sources further claim that the team formerly working on the title is now underway with one or more efforts that fall into the "expanded audience" lineup of games.

E3 is slightly less than a month away, so we won't have to wait long for confirmation of these rumors one way or the other. Although it should be noted that Croal seems much more certain about his contact's information than IGN does about their insider.

We'll have more on both titles soon.